Regatta Promotions - Sailing Event Marketing

Today we added the results from the District 7 Championships and the J/24 Southeast Regionals to the website. Congratulations to John Enwright and Robby Brown on getting 1st place at District 7 and Southeast Regionals respectively. On a side, but equally important, note we have been seeing far too many regattas lately with less than 10 boats. A few recent examples are: Dillon Open, Buzzards Bay, Marblehead NOOD, District 20 Championship and, Regata Mensual. If everybody tried to encourage more participation and draw in a few more boats then, all of these would classify for ranking. More qualifying regattas means better rankings which, as always, you can see at: http://www.j24worldrankings.com/

The Hornet is a reachable electric air horn capable of producing a 120 decibel blast which is equivalent to that of an ambulance siren. This device is a must have for any race committee. Normal air horns leak and don’t function properly in cold temperatures while The Hornet is ready to go after a quick 30 minute charge. As another bonus about The Hornet is that it is eco-friendly while normal air horns release harmful gases and leave behind a metal container, all of which hurt the environment. One final bonus about the Hornet is, in the long term you will end up saving money. The average yacht club would most likely save money with The Hornet by the end of one season. The Hornet is a great tool for any race committee.

Congratulations to Frithjof Schade for winning the Swedish Open this past weekend! Notability, Anna Gunnarsson skyrocketed from 128th to 60th in the world rankings after getting second place at the Swedish Open. For world rankings updated weekly come check out http://www.j24worldrankings.com/

Two great days of racing took place this past weekend at the 3rd Annual Rockland Castine Regatta hosted by Rockland Yacht Club. In all 32 boats made it to the line for the start on both days.

There were two cruising classes, three racing classes, a shorthanded division, and a multihull division each sailing a 20 mile course, to and from, Rockland and Castine Harbors.

Day 1 was the sled ride to Castine with a 10 to 20 knot West Southwest breeze that was mostly consistent throughout the race with just one hole about 3/4s of the way down the leg with a building breeze after that kept the racing interesting with groups of boats finishing within seconds of each other. First to finish on Day 1 was Panacea a Freedom 32 in the shorthanded division. Skippered and crewed by Peter McCrea, Panacea finished almost 10 minutes ahead of the first boat.

Since this race is pursuit style Panacea was the first boat to start with its high rating of 186 and affectionately called the rabbit. Well nobody caught the rabbit – good going Peter! Keemah a J/105 in racing class two was the next boat to finish closely followed by Cats Paw and Migis Magic in racing class three. It was not the day for the big boats as they were never able to catch all the way up to most of the smaller boats. Day 2 would be another story completely.

Close finish on Saturday – Five boats all within less than 20 seconds of each other at the finish in Castine.

Day 2 started off with a whimper and finished off with a bang. The weather intelligence provided the race committee with a forecast for some wind although it didn’t look like it just after the starting sequence had begun. A nice 5 knot northerly a filled just outside Castine harbor and the race committee anxiously started the race on time. However, that wind proved to be a fluke and very light air commenced for the rest of the starting sequence. Luckily a nice 1 knot+ out-going current kept most of the boats moving towards the goal of Rockland harbor while the whole fleet waited for a southwesterly wind to fill for a great upwind leg back “home”.

The wind did fill to about 10 to 15 knots and provided some large oscillations between 200 degrees and 250 degrees during the race. The boats that hit the shifts just right each time made huge gains however if you got caught on the wrong side it was hard to recover. The shifts only took place every 40 minutes or so, which created a wait and see, patience game. The out-going current meant that you didn’t need to go to a shore but boats would go to each side of the course and create some major leverage of about 1 to 2 miles at times.

The larger boats were able to catch up with the fleet on day two much better and the first boat to finish was racing class 1 boat, J’ai Tu, a J/35 owned by Gary Bennett and skippered by JB Turner. The second boat to finish was Kaos, a Frers 41′, skippered by Scott Smithwick, closely followed by Beausoleil, a Beneteau 456, skippered by Richard Parent.

Keemah, owned by Don Logan, won the overall by 1 minute and 35 seconds over Kaos. Both boats won their respective divisions this past weekend however Keemah’s combined finish times were just a bit quicker. Congratulations to Keemah on a second consecutive OVERALL WIN of the Rockland Castine Regatta.

On Saturday a party of over 175 sailors took place a Dennet’s Wharf restaurant. Which became really interesting when the power went out due to a small squall that went through Castine just after everyone had hit the docks and were cleaned up after racing. The Dennet’s staff was great and kept everything on schedule cooking with head lamps in their kitchen and serving all the sailors on time. Just about the time dinner was over the power came back on and the band was able to rock out the night and provide great music for dancing until the sailors couldn’t take it any longer.

On Sunday a party under the tent of the Rockland green was a perfect end to a great weekend with a full BBQ with burgers, dogs, chicken and all the fixings and some great salads to top off the experience.

Rising Tide Beer was enjoyed each day with their Spinnaker and Maine Island Trail Ale brands providing some great refreshment to the crowds of thirsty sailors.

After adding The Newport Regatta and Warnemunder Week Tim Healy and Dirk Strelow moved up the rankings. Tim Healy moved from 8th to 6th in the USA rankings after winning The Newport Regatta. Dirk Strelow moved from 8th to 6th in the German rankings after winning Warnemunder Week. Strelow also notably moved from 56th to 46th in the world rankings after his win. For world rankings updated weekly check out http://www.j24worldrankings.com

Today we added the results from 3 regattas including, The Florida State Championships. Stay tuned for results from The Newport Regatta the coming weekend. If you want to check your world ranking visit us at http://j24worldrankings.com/